1. Field of the Invention
The present invention discloses nucleic acid sequences from Xenorhabdus bovienii, methods of using the disclosed nucleic acid sequences to encode proteins and fragments of proteins, antibodies exhibiting binding specificity for the encoded proteins, transformation of cells such as bacterial cells and plant cells with the nucleic acid sequences or derivatives thereof to produce useful Xenorhabdus proteins or fragments thereof, including but not limited to insecticidal, bactericidal, fungicidal, nematicidal, antibiotic resistance, and polyketide proteins, and the like.
2. Background of the Invention
Xenorhabdus species are Gram-negative bacteria, members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, and symbiotically associated with nematodes species of the genus Steinernema. The nematode-bacterial complex can be characterized as an obligate parasitic relationship, specializing in parasitizing and proliferating in soil insect larvae. Infective, non-feeding stages of these nematodes live in soil and carry in their gut the nematode-genus-specific symbiotic strain of Xenorhabdus bacteria. It is believed that the nematodes actively search for the appropriate insect host, invade the insect larvae through natural openings or lesions in the cuticle and, once inside the hemolymph, release their symbiotic bacteria. The nematode-bacterial complex secretes a variety of highly efficient extracellular metabolites and proteins exhibiting insecticidal, bactericidal, fungicidal and nematocidal properties that secures the larval mass as a source of nutrition. An array of extracellular enzymes such as lipases, phospholipases, proteases, and nucleases as well as several broad spectrum antibiotics, and antifungal and nematocidal compositions are also secreted (Boemare & Akhurst, J. Gen. Microbiol. 134: 751-761, 1988; Li et al., Can. J. Microbiol. 43(8):770-773, 1997; McInerney et al., J. Nat. Prod. 54(3):774-84, 1991; McInerney et al., J. Nat. Prod. 54(3):785-95, 1991; Sundar and Chang, J. Gen. Microbiol. 139 (Pt 12):3139-48, 1993). It has been discovered that some compounds secreted by Xenorhabdus exhibit anti-neoplastic (U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,872), acaricidal, anti-inflammatory and anti-ulcerogenic properties (U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,222). U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,838 describes insect inhibitory proteins that exhibit a molecular weight of greater than 100 kDa produced by Xenorhabdus sp., which are active against a variety of insect species including the orders, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, and Acarina, when provided in an insect diet.
Xenorhabdus strains have been shown to produce an array of extracellular proteins and small molecules or secondary metabolites exhibiting specialized functions (Li et al., Can. J. Microbiol. 43(8):770-773, 1997; McInerney et al., J. Nat. Prod. 54(3):774-84, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,838), as well as proteins and small molecules that are more commercially interesting because they exhibit antibiotic properties or insect inhibitory activity. A small number of insect inhibitory proteins have previously been identified from these bacteria, symbionts of insect-parasitic nematodes (Morgan et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 67(5):2062-2069, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,838). Such proteins and compositions are used as biologically safe and effective pest control agents. Unlike chemical pesticide compositions, these proteins appear to have no effect upon the environment in general, can be targeted to direct their effect primarily upon target insect species, and have no effect on non-target species. A resistance management strategy that takes advantage of insect inhibitory proteins derived from distinct microbial sources other than B. thuringiensis would be desirable. Insect inhibitory proteins isolated from Xenorhabdus bacteria exhibit all the prerequisites for the delivery of novel genes for transgenic expression of insect pest inhibitory proteins in plants to provide pest resistance, expressed either alone or in combination with other insecticidal proteins such as Cry proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis. 
Therefore, there is a great deal of interest in identifying genes that encode new insect inhibiting proteins, as well as other types of proteins produced by Xenorhabdus bacteria, such as proteins involved in the synthesis of novel antibiotics, polyketide synthases, lipases, proteases, nucleases, chitinases, restriction endonucleases, transposons, transposases, excisases, endonucleases, as well as other useful proteins and the like. Isolation and sequencing of the entire genome of Xenorhabdus has allowed for the dissection and analysis of the genome into discrete genes encoding proteins exhibiting beneficial properties as described herein.